Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Abdoulaye Alhassane @ The Stone 5/19/09

1.5 hours of beautiful Sahara music. t started a few minutes early. The setlist fell on the floor at one point, so I saw they had a lot of ground to cover. They had to skip to the last song to end at 9:30. It was wonderful.

They had a special guest, Baba Raymond Graham on shekere. He played it by tapping the beads. I was amazed at how loud it was. It added a lot to the music.

Idrissa Kone started on the little talking drum, played under his armpit. He moved to the djembe after a couple. Then, someone handed a package to Abdoulaye, and he pulled out a calabash, 1/3 of a large round gourd, played on a table at first and then the floor. Idrissa played that for the rest of the show. He put 2 rings on, the middle finger of one hand and index finger of the other, to make interesting sounds at times. He played it with a stick for the last, more electric tune.

The acoustic bass was great. It wasn't an upright. He played the electric bass for the last tune.

The guitar and vocals were beautiful and soulful. I was really feeling that with the bass accompaniment.

The soprano sax was awesome. It added so much. She mainly played that, but she did play the nai flute for a few tunes.

It was so good. I am so glad I got to be there. Aha! Now, I see they did Visionfest last year, and I now remember I was there and loved it. Hopefully now I will take note and know to go if I ever see him listed again.

Abdoulaye Alhassane
Abdoulaye Alhassane (guitar, gurmi, vocals) Moussa Mahaman (guitar, bass) Kali Fastaeu (nai flute, soprano sax) Idrissa Kone (tama, gasu)
Original Music of the Niger River and Sahara from Mali and Niger led by Abdoulaye Alhassane.

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